Few record shops in Britain occupy a garden centre, and fewer still can claim a stockholding that runs into six figures, but Uptown Vinyl Records at Baytree in Weston, just outside Spalding, does both. Four connected rooms of racking make it one of the largest independent vintage vinyl operations in the country, and a genuine destination for collectors across Lincolnshire and far beyond.
Background / History
The shop was opened in April 2015 by Alan Barnsdale, who had spent more than three decades assembling a personal collection of some 40,000 singles, albums and CDs before deciding to turn it into a business. There was family precedent for the name: his wife Sharon ran an earlier Uptown Records on Victoria Street in Spalding during the 1990s. The first incarnation traded from the Spalding Lifestyle Centre at Pinchbeck, where it quickly outgrew its space and became a regular outside-broadcast venue for BBC Radio Lincolnshire. In spring 2019 the shop moved to Baytree Garden Centre, taking on a far larger footprint that has since expanded room by room. Support from South Holland District Council’s Grants4Growth scheme paid for the vintage-style record and CD racking now used throughout, and the tenth anniversary was marked in April 2025. Satellite stock is also carried at the Corn Exchange arcade in Stamford and at Bourne.
What You’ll Find
The headline figures are around 200,000 records and more than 25,000 CDs, spread across four rooms and almost entirely second-hand. Genuine vintage pressings make up the overwhelming majority of the stock, with only a small selection of new sealed releases. The sheer scale allows genres that get squeezed into a single crate elsewhere to have proper sections of their own: country, classical, jazz, blues and folk sit alongside rock and pop, alternative and indie, punk, metal, hip hop, soul, funk, reggae, ska, house and dance. A dedicated bargain room holds upwards of 17,000 seven-inch singles at 50p apiece and around a thousand LPs at a pound, while separate runs cover 1960s singles by the tens of thousands, plus 78s and older shellac pressings. Cassettes, 8-tracks, music books, concert programmes, memorabilia and T-shirts fill out the offer. Collections are bought outright with cash paid, and trade and wholesale buyers are welcome.
Experience / Atmosphere
Browsing here is a commitment rather than a quick stop. Hand-painted genre boards, wall displays of sleeves and the shop’s bold red logo give the rooms a warehouse-jumble-sale character that regulars clearly enjoy, and the pricing is deliberately pitched to encourage digging rather than cherry-picking. Alan is usually on the floor and happy to point people towards the right room or dig out something specific. The shop has also carved out a role as a local cultural fixture, hosting an exhibition devoted to Barbecue 67, the legendary Spalding festival that brought Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Pink Floyd and The Move to the town’s Tulip Bulb Auction Hall. Broadcasters and television crews have followed, including a visit from BBC Two’s Celebrity Antique Road Trip, and the shop has been picked out by the Financial Times among the world’s great record shops.
Why Visit
- One of the biggest second-hand vinyl stockholdings in the UK, with roughly 200,000 records under one roof
- Four separate rooms allowing deep sections in country, classical, jazz and folk as well as the mainstream genres
- A bargain room with thousands of 50p singles and £1 albums for patient diggers
- Strong holdings of 1960s singles, 78s and shellac rarely found in quantity elsewhere
- Cassettes, 8-tracks, memorabilia, books and concert programmes beyond the records
- Records and collections bought, with cash paid and trade buyers welcome
- Free on-site parking and a garden centre restaurant a few steps away
Summary
Uptown Vinyl Records rewards anyone prepared to give it the time it deserves. The scale is unusual for an independent shop, the emphasis on genuine vintage pressings rather than reissues gives the racks real depth, and the bargain pricing means a visit rarely ends empty-handed. Combined with its exhibitions, broadcast history and place in the story of South Holland’s musical past, it makes for a rare sort of record shop, one worth planning a day around rather than passing through.
